He deserved to have a spot placed in that wilderness, and thank the Lord for that opportunity. We're glad to see that, amen. And I appreciate all, and I appreciate Brother Matt's work there. Thank the Lord for it, amen. We had a strange thing. There's a camp grounds down the road from us, about 40 miles, no it's not, is it 40 miles? About 40 miles from us. And a preacher called up and said, Brother Ellis, I'd like for you to come down and look at this camp. So I went down and looked at it. I knew about where it was. And what was it, 40 acres? 80 acres. 80 acres of camp. And it looked like a rapture had happened there. I mean, classrooms were set up with paces on the desk. Computers there. Bedrooms made up, ready to go. Dorms, living quarters, church chapel, ball fields, tractors to cut the grass with, everything. He said, just want to give it to you. Want to give it to the church. And looked it over there a little bit and prayed about it. I think one of our mutual brethren, our brother Blankenship, needed a place. and I believe he's found a place, amen? Right down the road, I mean, isn't it good how God just does what he wants to do, amen? Just does, just does what he wants to do, he's able, amen, and so bless the Lord, and such a good thing to hear about tonight, and I'm glad for that, I've really enjoyed hearing the presentation, appreciate him and Kate singing, and it's good to see you tonight, and I wanna, I get all head up in a big way when I get started trying to preach, but I wanna be grateful, and I want the church to know how grateful we are for your support for Melanie, My daughter, I'll tell you, last year, you were so good to her, and we didn't recognize how important that was gonna be. She was about to get ready to leave, and I mean, we were just in weeks of her being able to go, and all of this stuff shut down, and she was left and got caught, and when she got out to Idaho, finally, when they got things cleared, they had to buy plane tickets. See, not only is this COVID business, crazy. It is insane. I mean, you drive by a plane ticket, it's insane. You know, they want you to have a COVID test 72 hours before you buy a plane ticket for internet, especially for international travel. And they want you to have a visa to get into the country before they let you go. And they won't let you have a visa till you have a plane ticket. So you gotta go buy a plane ticket with high hopes that somebody in a foreign country is gonna go ahead and grant you a visa before the timeframe runs out on your COVID stuff and you have to start over again. That's what the missionaries are dealing with. So she had to buy her plane tickets more than one time. Amen? And it just happened that this church had helped her. So she had a little reserve that allowed her to buy those tickets and lose them and then have it restored later on, amen? And so she got the money back and I called her, I said, listen, what are you going to do in the meantime? She said, well, I think it was of God because we had a container coming And I got to pay some stuff on the container when it gets here, my part. And so the Lord wouldn't let me give it away or spend it. He just kept it for me, and the airline saved it up and sent it into her right in time to pay for the container when it got there. So blessed be the name of the Lord. It all worked out wonderfully, and God was in control of all of it. And you know, her mama was mad as a wet hen, you know, about getting her money and losing her money. And she wanted me to take up arms. , and I was in control all along a man in his view what he wanted to do so thank the lord for that, no one exaggerate about a suspect that since of a I thank the Lord for it in the time frame that she was left there. She was able to take some medical training. She went around the country to different medical schools, and now she's doing medical work. I mean, she's got about as much medical degree as Granny Clampett. But they're lining up out there, and she's doing everything, from pulling teeth, to treating people with cancer, to just everything in the world. They found some doctor somewhere, and she can call on the phone and say, this is what's going on. He kind of gives them a little, and she's prescribed. She's giving out medicine, the whole deal. So between her and the other missionaries on the station, God's using them, and thank the Lord for it. And we really appreciate your help. You're standing behind her on that. What a blessing it is to have you. The finances were such a help, but the prayers are what we covered so much. The missionaries now, anywhere in the world they are, are in volatile places. No matter where they are. No matter where they are. I had a missionary friend in India. When COVID hit, somebody told him it was a white man's disease. That it was generated from white people. So you know what they did? They held him captive. They ran him and his wife in the house, locked them in, brought the law down there, and they came out every day to their house and checked them, made sure they were in the house at 8 o'clock in the morning, sent another policeman by at lunchtime, sent another one by in the afternoon. They allowed them to order groceries, and the police department brought it there to the house and kept them there until they finally decided they would be safe enough to put them in a car and take them to the airport so they could leave out of India. Stuff's going on all over the world like that. Well, if I was a devil, I'd do it too right now, wouldn't you? I wouldn't miss this opportunity. So, thank the Lord for your continued support and your continued prayer. You never know. She told me the other day, I'll just get ready to preach, but this is kind of a strange thing. She said, we got up the other morning, and she said, she's gonna get mad at me for telling you, but y'all, it'll be our secret, all right? She said, but there's somebody come in in the night, and put big stones all the way across the driveway. And I said, well, what's that about? She said, well, we don't know. And you know, in the jungle, everything means something. I've seen things over there. I knew somebody did that on purpose, but I didn't know what it meant. But I mean, it can be as easy as a pile of sticks pointing in a certain direction that has some meaning to those folks over there. You never know what it means. It's the same way out on the reservation. I mean, you don't know what it means, but they know what it means. So I asked her, I said, well, what does it mean? She said, we don't know. She said, we asked one of the older folks, he said, it means they either have already done something or they're about to do something. That sort of narrows it down, don't it? They've either done something or they're about to do something, amen? And so, well, what'd it mean, preacher? I don't know, she quit talking to me about it, so I don't know what happened. I don't know what it means or what it meant or what it's supposed to mean, amen? I'm just telling you, things going on all around the world. The devil's not happy about it, but God's not nervous, amen? He's still got things going just like he wants to go, amen? So if you'll take your Bible tonight and go with me, I got the wrong, I got the wrong message marked here in my little book, so I'm embarrassed, I'm gonna have to look it up here to give it to you tonight, and God's laid on my heart, but it's right here close by, amen. So if you turn with me, though, please start in the book of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter two, chapter two, amen. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. I had it marked before I left the hotel room here, Somehow or another, I can't see my notes, but it really doesn't matter if I can't find them. I'll just preach it like I had my notes. Amen. Yeah, they're here. I got the one Mark to preach last night. We sure don't want to do that thing over again. Amen. That's enough of that. Amen. Let me get ready here, and I'll get Daniel to look for it for me. While I read the passages, it'll come up here in a minute. My notes will. about to get it here. It's embarrassing, ain't it? Y'all embarrassed? Yeah, I'm embarrassed to death, amen? You know, it'd be real easy to find it if I just looked where I had that ribbon in there, you know that little ribbon? If I just, did y'all know you could take that little ribbon and lay it in there and it'll make a mark where you wanted to turn it to? If I just looked at that ribbon, it'd all been all right. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. , this is a very interesting portion of scripture to me not only is it very interesting is very, very , convicting me and I hope tonight will be encouraging you You would take this preaching time now, Lord, and make it thine. I pray, Lord God, it would be stamped with the blessing of the approval of God. Lord, it would be full of the Spirit of God, Lord. I pray for the people tonight that they'll be encouraged, Lord, lifted up, strengthened tonight. I pray that somebody tonight will be challenged and called, Almighty God. I pray tonight, Father, Lord, you'd help us, Lord God, to rise to the occasion of the times in which you've given us to live. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. As we begin to look here in the text, really there's 12 verses here. I'm really going to concentrate on verse 4, but I think our context is the 12 verses, and they're so wonderful that we probably ought to just read them. We better just start with verse 1 here in chapter 2, and I'll be mindful of the time. For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered before, when we were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor cloak of covetousness, God as witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls. because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witness. And God also, how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his children that you would walk worthy of God who had called you unto his kingdom and glory. Now I'm concentrating tonight, our thought comes from verse 4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak as not pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. Tonight I wanna talk to you for a little bit about being trusted with the gospel. Being trusted with the gospel. Now I don't know about you, but in my lifetime, I really hadn't been trusted with much of anything, amen? I mean, in all honesty, God's been good to me, gave me some blessings, but I'll tell you, I never considered myself, if I had something I didn't want to break or I didn't want to lose, right now, you know, people know all the time, they'll say, Brother Tim, would you do this? I'll say, talk to Daniel about it, let him put it down, I'll forget it, I'll lose it, I'll break it. I'll walk away from it somehow but somehow or another in the Bible God said that God had found a people that he had allowed to be entrusted with the gospel. Tonight one of the things that you've done is you've come out here to this cold winter night You come out tonight to think about carrying the gospel to a dying world. You come out tonight because you want your name on the line before God and men that you care about the dying world. You care about souls. You care about the glory of God. You're willing to have God grab your heart and stretch your faith, amen. You're not ready to put a period at the end of the sentence for what God's given you to do. You want to keep moving forward, amen, for the glory of God. And the reason why is that God has counted you faithful and entrusted you with the gospel, amen. And there's a certain kind of people that God puts in trust with the gospel today. I want to be trusted with the gospel. You know, the Bible said that when Jesus left, He said, I go to your father and my father. So when God left this, Jesus left this world, He left us a lot of things, but one of the things He left us was a family, amen? He left us in a family. The work of God, the church of God, the living church of God, you all know full well, it's not an organization, amen? It's not a work of men's hands. It's not to be guided by mortal men as part of the body of a living Christ, amen? It belongs to God. It's a family of God. It's the bride of Christ. It's the preciousest thing that God Almighty has got on the face of this earth, is His dearest bride. His child, amen, and I've been made part of the family of God, and one of these days, I'm gonna get to heaven, and I don't wanna be the screw-up. Can you imagine? Walk up there, and there's old Paul. Paul, how was it to love God? Oh, man, I just tell you, it was wonderful on that earth, walking and knowing the power of God. What'd you do for God? Well, I don't know, you know, Lord. I told the guy when I was buying them tires for my truck, he oughta come to church sometime. I don't want to get to heaven and be that guy who's standing in the corner. Have any of you got a black sheep family member? I mean he shows up at all the family deals and you know that sooner or later he's going to mess up something, he's going to tear up something, he's going to say something he shouldn't have done, amen? I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that God can trust with the gospel, amen? Why? Because the song that Emma sang, he's worthy. He's worthy, amen. He's worthy of glory and power and honor, amen. And I can't do a lot for Jesus. What am I gonna do for Christ, amen? He has no need, he suffers no loss. What can I do for Jesus? But all I can do is be faithful to him, amen, and give him back the glory and honor that's due his name. And he's entrusted you and me with the gospel. Gloria Land Baptist Church has been entrusted with the gospel. Bethany Baptist Church has been entrusted with the gospel. God said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you something. We're going to give you something to do. I'm going away. You remember that parable? He said, Hey, gave it about two different times in two or three different ways with different teachings. But just before I went to the cross, he said, Hey, uh, here's this parable. I'm going to give you 10 pounds and I'm going to give another one, five pounds. And, and I'm on a, uh, I'm going to give one, one pound. Amen. And the Bible said that one of them took the ten and went out, remember the story? And he used it and he got ten more, amen. And the other took the five and he was trusted with it. And he went out and got five more, amen. But the one guy, he told a lie on God. He said, I know that you're an austere man. Reap it, you're mean, you're hard, you reap what you hadn't sown. And you pluck up what you didn't put down, amen. So I just took it and folded it up and hid it in a napkin and you can come right back here if you want to and I'll do it. You know why he buried it? You ever thought about why he buried it? You know why he buried it? Because he thought maybe he wasn't coming back and he'd keep it for himself. It was his treasure. You know what God said? Thou art an unprofitable servant. Amen. So that's got doctrinal applications, it certainly does. But it also has devotional applications. And I'm telling you today, when we look at God, I don't wanna hear, I don't wanna hear him say you've been an unprofitable servant. Everybody thinks we're gonna meet God and he's gonna say, well done, now good and faithful servant. But listen, if you've been entrusted with the gospel, and you've treated it as a light thing, and we hadn't honored that work and carried that work forward, how can we expect God to say to us, well done, when we didn't even keep the trust that God left in our hands. He said over there in that text, you've been trusted with the gospel. I don't know, since Since we came together last year, old brother Mike Saunders, he is here. You know, I know last year, I believe it was the year he was here, he got asked in maybe. And you know Mike, he's always around everywhere. Well, Mike jumped out of here and went to glory right after our camp meeting. And I flew down to Texas to his funeral. And this is the text that brother Farley used to preach brother Mike's funeral. He used verse four. He was entrusted with the gospel. And if you ever do anything about Mike Saunders, you knew that all it was—everything that you could say about Mike Saunders, you could say. But one thing you had to say was he believed that God had entrusted him with the gospel, and he was willing to live out his whole life carrying that gospel. He'd pile up in that old van. with one leg gone and lungs tore up and trouble everywhere and he'd run up and down this highway and he'd just try to find him a veteran somewhere in the last days he could be good to. He'd try to find a prisoner in the early days he could be good to. He'd try to find somebody to ever meet and we were at, Mike had somebody that was on the outsides, he was preaching that gospel too, you know why? Because Mike knew that God had trusted him with the gospel. Tonight I believe that Glory Land Baptist Church has been entrusted with a gospel. I believe tonight that you, some of you sitting in these pews, you have been entrusted with a gospel. God's saved you, and God's changed your life, and God's given you a direction to go in, amen. And God's given you this good gospel, and you know the Bible, and you know the verses, and you know what the grace of God can do. And God's expecting us to go out. like ambassadors giving us this ministry of reconciliation, that everywhere we go, we're to carry the glory of God along with us, dear church. We're to season this world with the light of God's love and God's glory. In every situation, we're to show up with a smell of fresh bread from the altar of God, amen, to let the people know that God's alive, and that God is well, and that God is moving in this life, and we've been entrusted with the gospel now notice if you would a few things in that first verse down there Paul said for yourselves brethren know our entrance into you that it was not in vain. I want you to know today, if you take up this gospel call, if you get a hold on this gospel heart, amen, if you begin to go out and blow this gospel work, you won't have a life that's been lived in vain, amen. The great old preacher of old said, if I had a thousand lives to give, I'd give them all for the glory of the gospel, amen. You won't have lived your life in vain. Paul said, hey, you knew I entered into you. If you take your Bible, you got in your lap, and I believe you look at verse 5. You'll find that God, chapter 1, verse 5, you'll find he said that gospel came into Thessalonica with power, amen. It came with much assurance. It came with confidence, amen. And I'm telling you today, if you want to invest your life, you ought to invest it in something that's not in vain today. Building houses on a sinking ship. I mean, buying, building bigger barns on the mission field today. That seems to be the average beat of a Christian's heart. To live just as like the world as he can and forget that we're pilgrims passing through. That it's just a few more days of labor, amen. A beautiful land's just in sight. We ought to travel light. We ought to travel fast, amen. We ought to get the work of God done right in the place where we are. It's not a vain work. You can tell tonight, brethren, by the attendance of the missions conferences around the country, that people believe this is a vain work. Amen. They don't believe this is accomplishing anything. But I've just told you about one of your little missionaries that's seen over 50 people saved in two or three months. Amen. You haven't had 50 saved in your altar here, but you've had 50 saved, counted to your account. because your little missionary's been at work, and your other missionaries have been at work, and they're reaping them down. Arnold Tango, I got a note from him this morning. Arnold Tango preached in a sideline church, a start-up church in the Philippines, and Brother Arnold had 21 people saved Sunday morning, preaching in a little start-up church in the Philippines, amen. I'm telling you today, this is not a vain work. We've been entrusted with the gospel, and we wanna get that gospel out in the world where God can, Call them in for the glory of God. Not a vain work, it's an important work. Rather than that, one of the most important things we ever do is sit down and strategize and figure out and pray and find out what God wants us to do about carrying out the gospel. Amen. Amen. Sometimes my wife will say, Tim, we can't reach the whole world. Why can't I give it a whirl? Why can't I try? Why can't I try? I got two or three preacher friends and I got one or two especially, and I don't know if they're wet blankets or what they are, but they're always telling me I'm getting too old and I need to slow down. Do you know when I get old enough to have to slow down too much, it won't be up to me? My body will concede to that. Amen? So won't you just let me alone? Go and let me preach while I still can, let me go while I still can. Somebody told Daniel the other day, said we got a work starting in Ukraine, a work starting in Spain, we need some teachers and we're looking for somebody, would you consider it? And Daniel said, hey, I would consider it, but you need to call the old man, that's who you need, amen, he's game. He'll get on board, you know what? He's right, I'll go, I'll go, you know why? We've been entrusted with the gospel. Amen. We slept on the ground, Brother Charlie, all those days. You know why? Not because we were cowboys, not because we—but because we were entrusted with the gospel and we wanted to see one more soul, one more little family put back together, one more time when God blew by. We've been entrusted with the gospel. I'm not waiting on the Democrats to take care of the gospel, are you? I'm waiting on the Republicans to take care of it, I'm sure not waiting on them either, amen? I ain't waiting on the Pentecostals or Presbyterians, I'm telling you, I'm not waiting on them to take care of the gospel. Somebody's been entrusted with that true gospel of the living God, amen? And it's not a vain work. Hey, give your life to something that matters. Melanie getting mad too, but she probably can't hear none of this. She's about, y'all all right? She's about 17, I guess, and she said, hey, daddy, let's go for a walk in the pasture. Well, I knew she had something on her mind, because she ain't walking that pasture for no reason. So we're walking along here, and I said, what's on your mind? She said, I think I want to be a veterinarian. I said, is that right? She said, yeah, I think that's what I want to do. I want to be a veterinarian. I like animals. She's always been like Ellie Mae. She brought home everything, took care of everything. Always that way. You just know what else she's going to have out there, and then go off and leave them for us to tend to. But anyhow, she's up. So we were walking along, and she said, what do you think about that? I said, I think it's a good thing. People need veterinarians. We need them everywhere around here. I said, well, let me ask you something. What's that going to do about getting people in here? I said, if that's what you wanna do, we'll find you a job, we'll get you a job, we'll get you some schooling, amen. I said, but if it was me, I'd go ask God, couldn't I do something a little bit closer to the front line about getting folks to heaven than working on dogs and cows? Amen. She came back, she said, you're right, there's a bigger deal than that. I said, yes, ma'am, there's a bigger deal than that. Amen. You know why? We've been entrusted with the gospels. They can't go to heaven without the gospels. They can't get there without the gospel. And you and I have been entrusted with the gospel, and I'm afraid we got it buried in the ground, just waiting on the coming of the Lord. but it doesn't belong in the ground. It belongs in the highways and the hedges, because we've been accounted, we've been trusted with it, and we're gonna give an account of that trust. Let me hurry up. Look right here at the text, another little word here. I got some words underlying the spirit of God's pointed out to me. It said, but even after we had suffered before when we were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Do you know what's gonna happen? You know what happened to Philippi, don't you? You know what happened to Philippi, don't you? I mean, Paul went over to Philippi to help and they beat him with rods. He'd been in Rome when it was illegal to beat him with a rod, but they beat him with a rod wrongfully. They locked him in the prison, in the inward ward, and there in that inward ward, locked in that prison, they had the first recorded gospel concert in the New Testament. They began to sing at midnight, amen, and it was a jailhouse rock that broke out. And the jailhouse began to shake, and when it got to shaking, amen, they came out of there, and God was converting souls in that place, but they had shamefully entreated this preacher. You know what he did? He went straight on to Thessalonica preaching. What are you talking about, preacher? Preacher, I just can't do no more. Why? I've been shamefully entreated. People trusted with the gospel have just got to get over themselves. Amen? Do you know today, brethren, it's not about you? But do you know today, if the devil can make it about you, he'll stop the gospel? That's what he's up to. He don't care about you, he just wants that gospel to stop. He wants you to fail at the thing that God entrusted you with. You know today you don't have to have a Bible degree to do right by the gospel. You don't have to know, you don't have to know, you don't have to know all where it is in the Bible. You know, you know, you know what that Gadaranian maniac, I mean he's been living out there without no clothes in the graveyard with another fellow without no clothes, and you know what he had to do? God told him, just go home and tell him what God did for you. I mean, if you could just go tell what God did for you, you can go to work with the gospel, but when we get shamefully entreated, the first thing we want to do is throw up our hands, don't we? Amen. We just say, hey, this is not worth it. It becomes about man's opinions, and man's ideas, and man's decisions. This gospel's way higher than that. It moves in a world so far above that, that you and I can't even begin to dream where it is. This gospel, Paul calls it the glorious gospel. He calls it my gospel. In this text, he calls it the gospel of God, amen. This good news out there that God trusted us with, and we can't stop it because we've been shamefully entreated. We can't stop it because, you know how many people today are not in church because somebody hurt their feelings at church? Amen? And you know what the lion's share of the preaching is today? We're so sorry your feelings got hurt at church. Nearly every, hey brother Charlie, they'll fill the altars up if you'll just preach one of them encouragers. Amen? If you'll just make it all about them, they'll fill the altars up. But when you say hey, You'll get over it, you're not gonna die from it, the gospel's too important. You know what, they wanna move on to somebody else. Paul said, be of good cheer, and folks wanna cheer later, but I saw this, I never saw this in my life, I've been studying all these years, but Paul said over in Acts, be of good cheer. You know what's fixed to happen? He's fixed to be shipwrecked, dunked in the ocean, cold, freezing by a fire, and snake bit. Now brother, that is a bad couple of days right there. But he comes out of there and he says, be of good cheer, because it's like, well, all right, it's fixing to get worse. I said, brother, that's why Brother Foley always said, cheer up, it's going to get worse. And here it is. You may get dipped in the ocean, snake bites, you freeze to death, but just be of good cheer. Isn't that good? I don't know any preacher for it was worth his sin and ain't never got by being shamefully treated. Amen. If my Savior can hang on a cross naked in front of his mama and the whole world, beaten and bruised and spit upon, then brother, I can bear the burdens of some of the people of God. Amen? I don't have to tuck my tail and run. I've been entrusted with the gospel. It's more important. Amen. Can't stop, God sent us something to do, we got a job to do, and when we get home after a while, we'll sit down in God's heaven and it'll be worth it all, but right now, we gotta focus why Paul said, hey, they beat the fire out of me at Philippi, they locked us in jail, we had a Holy Ghost move of God, and when we got through from there, we just loaded up and took off straight to Thessalonica and started over again. Why? We were entrusted with the gospel. Are y'all getting the point tonight? Richard, things are getting harder and harder. Amen, they are, but you know there's more money than I've ever seen. I ain't never seen this much money. It's everywhere. People that don't even work got money. When I was a little boy, I told my daddy, I said, Daddy, I need some money. He said, I'll tell you how to get it. I said, how? He said, go to work. Amen. All of my life, I said, Daddy, I want some money. He said, go to work. I say I ain't making enough. He'd say get a better job. Work harder. But people don't even work got money now. I mean, there's money everywhere. I mean, some of these some of these families with kids, but Charlie, they're getting 10 $12,000. I mean, I get I get 50 I get money every month. Commission offers not coming up. I mean, You talk about capitalizing on the money, you put them Biden books, you put them Biden books in the offering plate for a missionary, you'll be able to say, hey, you'll turn this thing around on them, amen? So you got the audacity to say that? Absolutely, amen. You know why we've been entrusted with the gospel? Why don't you lay down? Because I got to trust. God trusted us with the gospel. Not only that, look a little further in this word. People that's been trusted with the gospel are gonna have to put up with much contention. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. It's like I was telling you, Brother Matt was telling you, folks that's been with the gospel, they're gonna have to go out there in the woods and cut out a bunch of trees and look at a bunch of dilapidated buildings that look like to me, that look like to me, about the only thing you could do with them things is let something get in there to hide. But they're standing up there looking at it and said, hey man, all we need is a shed. We can build a shed out here. We'll get some kids in and tell them how about Jesus. Well, couldn't you do that easier somewhere else? But the problem is we've been entrusted with the gospel. Y'all get what I'm saying? It's with much contention. I don't know how we're gonna give anymore. I do, just give it. Just do without something. Just sell something. Amen. Just do something a little extra. I mean, it's gonna be much contention here, but you can blow it if you want to, but everything you buy is going to the graveyard, sooner or later it's going to the junkyard, or your kids are gonna fight over it when you're dead, so just go ahead and be entrusted with the gospel and lay up dividends in heaven where moth can't get in, thieves can't break through and steal it. I mean, we've been entrusted with the gospel. Can God trust us? Even when contention comes? Amen. Even when contention comes in the church, are we gonna run out because we don't want to get involved? I'm not running out because I don't want to get involved. Why? I've been trusted with the gospel. Amen. The gospel's at stake here. So we gotta stand and do what God, and having not, I'll stand. Right or wrong? It's a Bible doctrine. Who does that? Folks have been trusted with the gospel. I was looking on down in the text, look a little further. Down there he says, well, here's some things, some dangers, for them folks that have been entrusted with the gospel. Look at verse, because I'm gonna watch the time here, and I can preach a while in this text. Look at verse five. For neither we at any time use we flattering words, as you know, nor cloak of covetousness God is witness. Let your eyes go back to verse four. Even so, we speak not as pleasing men, but God. You know, one of the biggest things today that it is an endangerment to those of us who've been entrusted with the gospel is the desire to please men. Amen. I'm telling you today, I'm watching one young preacher after another wash up on the shore of compromise over trying to please men. I'm watching preachers take over, take churches, and they go into automatically popularity contests. They try to win this group of people to it. And they don't even know, they're so carnal that they don't even know that they're dividing up the church into cliques that the Holy Ghost can't even use. Amen? Because they're trying to please men. They don't care if they please God or not, they just want enough of the church behind them to carry on. Am I right or wrong? Right. You know what happens? Why do they do that, preacher? Because the devil's fighting them because they've been entrusted with the gospel. It's not about them being sorry, it's about Christian warfare. And the devil's dealing with them because he'll do anything to stop that gospel. The devil will bust up your home to stop that gospel. he'll come in and get a family tore all the pieces so there'll be a divorce because you can't support missionaries in two homes he'll bust up churches he'll do anything he can just to stop that gospel and we all and then they'll make us believe it's somebody else's fault but the whole problem is he wants that gospel to quit moving you and I've been entrusted with a gospel I when I was playing ball, like in the days that's been seen like 100 years ago now. But when I was playing football, I would never let me run the ball. Because I didn't care. I had to play on the line or some fool back somewhere. I wouldn't let me run the ball. Because I didn't care who I run. I didn't have no sense. Look, no. And the guys in front of him said no. Can't give him that ball. He'll break my back. I run into my guard, my tag whoever to give you the ball. I'm just running. But the one thing they told me to do was hold on the ball. So whatever you do, it don't matter how many people you run over, how far you get, you gotta carry the ball. It's the most important thing in that game is keeping up with that ball. And I'm telling you, they don't care if it knocks you down, don't drop the ball. If you drop the ball, the play's over, dead. So right now our job is, we've been entrusted with the gospel, is to hold on to this gospel even if it takes us through shameful treatment, even if it takes us through much contention, even if it takes us through standing in places where people are not happy about us and they're not satisfied with us, but we've got the gospel that we gotta carry forward. Amen. You know why y'all stay right with God? Because you need the Holy Ghost to carry the gospel. You get out there and get wrong with God, fussing, fighting around the house. I told our church the other day, I'm sitting there watching, and me and my wife's cross ways, and I'm thinking, if either one of us wins, we ain't gonna prosper nothing. You ever been that way? She's mad as a dickens, amen, I'm mad as a devil. And I'm sitting there thinking, if I win in this deal, it ain't gonna amount to nothing. And if she wins, it ain't gonna amount to nothing. It ain't got no purpose. You know what I know then? This is of the dead. And what's he trying to do? Stop the gospel. That's what he's trying to do, church. You've been entrusted with the gospel, and now he's trying to get you to, he's trying to do anything he can to get you to drop that gospel, amen. You see right there in that text, that Paul said, hey, when I came to you, I didn't come to you void, but I didn't come to you as a man pleaser. Amen, that was the problem he had the church of Corinth. Isn't that right? Some said, I'm of Paul. Some said, I'm of Cephas. I like that law preacher. I like that law preacher. Some said, I'm of, what is his name? Apollos. I like that elegant preacher. Amen? Some of them said, well, I'm better than all of you birds. I'm of Jesus. They said, I'm a Jesus boy. Paul said, don't you know you're carnal? You're carnal. You know what he's saying? It's not about pleasing men, it's about pleasing God, amen. I know you folks are looking for a pastor around here, and you know what the deal is? You gotta find the will of God. That's what's hard, isn't it? Just find the will of God. That's what you've been taught all your life. It's not about who you like or who you don't like or who likes or whose brother-in-law's gonna get in or who's got a connection here, who's got one over there, it's about find the will of God. And the way Paul did that, he did that in the churches. You know what he did? He said they fasted and prayed. I'm sure you've been doing that. And God's gonna give you who he wants you to have in the will of God. Amen. Well, preacher, how do we find the will of God? Out of the rule book. Everybody's opinion has to bow to this book, isn't that right? That's it. Just bow to the book. You know why? We gotta carry the gospel. Gotta carry the gospel, amen? Amen. Honestly, you've heard this story before, but I preached in a church that was this way. This church was up in Tennessee, and they got to fighting over where the piano went. I'll tell you, I went in that church, and I'm telling you, one day that piano would be on one side of the church, and the next day it'd be on the other side of the church. And it's the honest to God truth. And Daniel knows more about it than he thinks he knows. And that church, them folks would come earlier in the morning so they could move the piano before the other crowd got there. They didn't care nothing about the gospel, they cared about where that piano was going. Amen? And they didn't care if you tore the whole thing down as long as they got that piano where they wanted it at. You know what the devil will do? He'll build a false fight. and it'll get you interested in winning so the gospel will lose. But we've been entrusted with the gospel. Go on and look a little further down here. He said we didn't use flattering words. You know what, God didn't send us out here to be flatterers, did he? You know the reason today so many people are gonna go to hell from church pews is because we're so busy about flattering people. And you know what happens? When we bring the gospel down, it makes a short step from our wickedness to that corrupted gospel. But it's not, it's a long step. It's a long way from where God picked me up out of the miry clay and set my feet on a solid rock to that thing that Holy Ghost of God put in my heart and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, amen. He don't have the traits of the old world. It don't look like the world. It don't smell like the world. It's in the world, but it's not of the world, amen. It's God Himself living down in our never-dying soul, amen, amen, amen. Isn't that wonderful today? but the world is trying their best to dumb down and dirty up our gospel. Amen, you know why? So they can politely and religiously die and go to hell. If I'd have died before I was 19 years old and went to hell, I'd have been the most surprised guy there. They baptized me three times already. That ought to count for something. I went down and told the preacher I wanted to get saved and he said mom and dad would be proud of me. Amen? I didn't hurt nobody, but I didn't know nothing about the gospel. I didn't know I was lost in my sin and a little church membership wasn't gonna fix it. I didn't know that I had to turn to God with my whole heart and trust in the work of Calvary, amen. But when that happened, a peace flooded my soul. It changed my life. It was real. And the devil, the devil don't want that. He don't care how religious we get, brethren. He don't care how religious we get. As long, just as long as we don't contend for the gospel. Look here, verse six, nor of men sought we glory. You know, one of the great dangers that corrupts us from being trustworthy with the gospel is seeking men's glory. You know, I have to confess, there was a time in my life that I wanted to be one of the boys. I always said that, I don't care about it, but there was a time I did. I had to go back and look at it. There was a time I wanted to be on the camp meeting roster. I wanted to be on the road. But you know, now, now I'm really interested in having the approval of God. How about you? I've watched big men rise and big men fall. I've watched good men serve God, and I've watched good men go to glory. All I want to do is serve God. I've been encountered with the gospel. I told my wife when I had that cancer, I said, now if I die, there's one thing you gotta do. He said, what? I said, you got to open my Bible to Romans chapter 10, verse 13, and let them feel my finger up real good with that formaldehyde and point it right there at that verse. So when I'm laying in the casket, I want that Bible open my finger. I said, I ain't kidding with you. I want to put it right there, amen. Why? Because we've been entrusted with the gospel. So I ain't never done nothing right in my life. Never done nothing right. but at least I can carry the gospel to the end and be true. How about that? Paul said, hey, we were entrusted with this gospel, so we carried it forward. That's what we did. He said it was some contention. There's been some rough water behind us, but not any I even remember too much of. If you remind me, I'll remember some of that stuff, but if you don't, then God just brought us through with glory, amen? Been some rough water, been some contention, there's been some brethren, amen, that we got crossways with, but none now got any malice in my heart toward. It's coming, it's gone. You know why? Because of the gospel. Not a one, I couldn't be happy tomorrow if I heard that God was blessing and revival broke out in their place. Not a one, my heart's honest. You know why? Because it's the gospel that we're interested in. Amen. He said down there, look at this next word down there. He said, well look at verse seven, but we were gentle among you. Paul uses two family examples in this text. One of them is a nursemaid and the other is a father. Now look at what he says, but we were gentle among you. You know why we're gentle among people? Because of the gospel. You know why we have to, we go on and on and we're patient and we're loving and we're praying, amen? You know why? Because of that gospel. God gave us that gospel. We may want to fight everybody in the world, but that's not what God called us to do. This calls us to love these folks and to carry that gospel to them people, of those that oppose themselves. Gentle as nursemaids, going in and pulling and drawing and praying and trying our best to reach them for the glory of God. Why? Because God entrusted us with the gospel. I'm good many years ago. My wife and I, I think the kids were little, we were out of the church, I was pastoring that Sunday morning, and we went up the road there, Arlington, Tennessee, a few miles, and we went to church. We were coming back in, we stopped and went to church, Baptist Church. We went in the church and sat down, and the preacher got up during the Sunday school hour and he preached. And all of a sudden, the altar call happened, Sunday school. And this woman came down and got in the altar. And she's just weeping. I mean, she's tore up worse than a bicycle in Chicago. I mean, she's tore up. And them folks is all standing around there looking at her. And this guy gets up, I mean, this woman's been crying 15 minutes. And this preacher gets up and says, salvation is of the Lord. And this man stands up and he's crying. He said, my wife needs to be saved. But I can't help her, it's of God. and she's still squalling. And I'm moving around and my wife's pinching my legs saying, behave. And I told her, I said, Lisa, we got two choices. Either we get up and leave this place or I'm gonna take my Bible, show that woman how to get saved. She said, it's just pride. No, I've been entrusted with the gospel. Amen? That was just pure, utter foolishness. If she wanted to be saved, God was in the saving business, amen? That's false doctrine. We had to stand against it. You know why? Because we were entrusted with the gospel. Not that we know anything, not that we are anybody, but we've been entrusted with the gospel. Amen. As a nursemaid, laboring. It's travail in there. You know why? Today many folks don't, we don't carry the gospel because we don't want to travail. You know why folks don't want to come to mission offering? They don't want to work harder to give more. They don't want to be stretched. They don't want to be stressed. Amen. Because we live in a stressful, stressful day, but it's a travail involved. Hey, do you know that the mission program of Glory Land Baptist Church will cost you more than anything else you ever do? It'll be the most costly thing you ever do. It'll cause more trouble than anything you ever do. I mean the devil won't bother you about this, but if you start pushing that gospel, he's gonna get involved. Amen? You know what it'll do? It'll cost you your children, cost you peace of mind, cost you retirement, it'll cost you to serve God. it'll cost you so God Almighty is busy at this thing of us carrying the gospel now let me let me wind this down here if I could please you help me and I will now look here verse 11 as you know how we exhort and comfort and charge every one of you as a father does his children you know what we have to do we have to we have to turn to God to be exhorted to be charged, to be comforted. This is not a vain work. You haven't invested yourself in vain things. You've invested yourself in the charge of the gospel. And you've sowed seeds around this world for the glory of God, and God's trusted you with it. I could give a half a dozen examples tonight, and the results of this trust is that people receive the word of God. Souls are converted, God is glorified, Nations are changed. Nations are changed. The gospel does that. God's doctrines are shared abroad. It's our job to carry that gospel because that gospel is the only hope for a dying world. Now, here's the closing thought. They stood up on that mountaintop. And the Lord commissioned them apostles. Now we're Bible believers, so he said, go ye. So we know that word ye means more than you. So that ye gets it all down to us. Go ye in all the world. Now could you imagine that? I mean, just put yourself in their shoes. Them guys ain't never been anywhere. You couldn't have asked a more impossible thing. All they ever did was ride a boat around the ocean of the Sea of Galilee. They hadn't been nowhere. They'd followed Jesus three and a half years, but they had never been anywhere, never done anything, and he says, go into all nations, all the world, and preach the gospel. You gotta be kidding. All the world, these 12 guys, 11 guys? I wouldn't have trusted Peter with that. No way. You know, Peter spent most of his ministry arguing with Christ. All the way through the Bible he's telling Jesus why he's saying exactly how it is. Ain't he? That's the way it is. And even after he gets full of the Holy Ghost, brother, people used to say I'm like old backsliding Peter. Brother Jack always had the same answer every minute, every time. Before or after Pentecost is what he'd say. Amen? But even after Pentecost, he still tries to tell, he nearly tears the church of Daniac up. Amen? But God gave him the chalk. There's James, there's John, there's Thomas. Thomas is still running around trying to figure out what he believes and don't believe. See, this is before the church really gets moving good. They've been full of the Holy Ghost now, but they're just moving. And God said, hey, you've got to carry this gospel. Can you think about that? I was thinking about how strange that is, and I thought, I mean the dearest thing to God in this world is his bride. That's what he's coming back to. But he trusted that to us. To us. He said, hey, I got confidence in you. I'm gonna give you a comforter, and I'm glad again, I'm glad I'm a King James guy. Because I don't need a paraclete, I don't need one to come alongside, I need something inside, amen? Being on the outside won't do it for me, I need it on the inside, amen? And the Holy Ghost, the Comforter in coming, He'll be in you, amen? I'm gonna give you the Holy Ghost of God, He's gonna be in you. And what He's gonna help you do is carry this gospel to a dying world. Don't worry about what to say, I'm gonna help you know what to say. You just stick your nose in that book and get full of that book, and I'll get you full of God, and I'll give you the opportunity to serve me. Just quit seeking to glorify yourself and glorify me. Don't worry about men. Don't worry about the bumps and the bruises. Just carry the gospel. Now, some of you have heard this before. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it. You can still find it. But Brother Wood used to preach a great message, and everybody knows Brother Wood for the message, called the Pony Express. And in that great message in the Pony Express, he said, one of his points was that when trouble came, they picked light men. because they want them light on them big horses. And he said, they could shoot, they could fight, but every one of them was told, don't fight. He said, when the trouble came, he said, just turn that horse and gallop away. Brother Wood would say, and carry the mail. Because your purpose is to get the mail. And you and I have been entrusted with the gospel. Can you see it? I can just see it in my mind, a golden opportunity, entrusted here. I'm counting on you. Take this to a dying world. I'm going to help you. I'm going to give you everything you need. You just go and carry it. Don't worry about being the treatment. Don't worry about the contention. And don't worry about pleasing men. Don't worry about the changes in culture. I've seen it. Hey, brother, I've seen it all change. When I got saved, I was wearing leisure suits. Lord, I hated them things. When I was a little boy, my mama used to make me wear them things. I hate it, they didn't have a pocket on them nowhere. Bell bottoms, everything in the world. Now I can't even buy a pair of breeches that goes over my boots. All of them's tightened down on the ankle. I mean, it's all changed. Who cares? Just carry the gospel. Just carry the gospel. Church has changed. Did you know that? Just carry the gospel. You can trust it with the gospel. God entrusted us with God. Amen. Would you stand with me, please?